国际英语新闻：Iran, Russia say Bushehr nuclear power plant no threat

On Friday, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said Iran will continue enrichment to produce fuel for both Bushehr nuclear power plant and other power plants to be built in Iran in future, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Speaking to IRNA, Salehi turned down the U.S. call on Iran to suspend enrichment once Russia supplies fuel to Bushehr facility.

Last Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said "Russia is providing the fuel (for Bushehr plant) and taking the fuel back out," which means that Iran does not need its own enrichment program.

"That is a wrong logic," said Salehi, quoting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's recent remarks that fuel cycle is natural right of Iranian nation, said IRNA.

Besides, Iran's IAEA envoy Ali-Asghar Soltanieh said Friday in Vienna that with the operation of Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's fuel cycle will practically be completed.

Soltanieh told IRNA that since all nuclear fuel cycle phases, including uranium exploration and extraction, purification, transfer and uranium enrichment, and construction of fuel rods for reactors and for the research reactor took place in Iran, the operation of Bushehr nuclear power plant will place Iran among few countries worldwide to be skilled in full fuel cycle.

He said Bushehr nuclear power plant is totally exceptional in Iran's nuclear history because it goes on after almost three decades of delay, according to IRNA.

Construction of the plant started in 1975 by several German companies. However, work halted when the United States imposed an embargo on hi-tech supplies to Iran after the 1979 revolution. Russia signed a contract with Iran to complete the construction in 1998.

The Russian Atomic Energy Corporation said that the launch of the Bushehr plant in Iran has been set for Aug. 21.

Western powers suspect Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons despite Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is intended only for generation of civilian energy.